Your Body Is MADE for Summer
We are approaching that time of year when it seems like everyone is talking about their "summer body" as if this is a real thing. Like in some world, some where there is a place where our bodies change based on the season it is. Well, that is, based on if it is summer or any other season. This type of talk about "summer bodies" is not only ridiculous, but toxic. YOUR BODY IS ALWAY SUMMER READY, M.A.D. FRIENDS! Here are a few ways to combat the toxic, diet-culture messages about "summer bodies."
Give your body some love
Sit with your body for a moment and check in with how you have been talking to it. What are the statements you have been saying to yourself? Are they kind? Are they harsh? Do they align with positivity and self-love or with diet-culture? Most of us are pretty harsh to our bodies, if not, downright cruel. We will say things to ourselves about our bodies that we would never dare say about another human. Narrow in on the part of your body you are the harshest to, lovingly place a hand there and speak kindness, compassion, gratitude and love to that part of your body.
Challenge the Diet-Culture Narrative
It is ALL around us. I mean it is really everywhere if we are aware and paying attention. From billboards to commercials to our own home. There are messages about the ways our bodies should look, move, and exist in the world. There are also messages about how awful our lives will be or even how awful we are if we do not have bodies that are that way. Pay attention to these messages. This will give you the power to intentionally combat them rather than unintentionally taking them in and accepting them as truth. Talk out loud to yourself, share with a friend, have open conversations with your family about how these messages are not only inaccurate, but harmful. Then replace them. If you see an ad showing a body as desirable only if it is a certain size, find other bodies that are desirable of a different size. Fill your social media with beautiful people of all sizes and unfollow/block/delete those that reinforce the diet-culture narrative. We can't always stop the diet-culture messages from coming, but we can attempt to balance them with healthier messages and images.
Redefine Health
One of the biggest arguments for diet-culture and fat phobia is that people just want others to be healthy. As if the only marker of health is body size. This is just inaccurate. There are people out there with skinny bodies who are completely unhealthy. There are also people out there with bigger bodies that are extremely healthy. Health is not measured on a scale. Health is far more complex than that. Redefine how you understand health and what it means to be healthy. Health can be measured by the frequency we move our body, how we fuel our body, the way we treat/speak to our body, and factoring in the other ways we keep our body healthy (e.g., going to a dentist). Of course, don't forget that mental health is part of having a healthy body as well.
My hope for you, M.A.D. Friends, is that this summer you allow your body to be seen and loved for exactly how it is. Reminder, it's your body and your rules. So get rewriting and redefining what a healthy, beautiful, capable body looks like. Your body was made for summer and there is not a damn thing you need to do to prepare for the changing seasons.
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